South Africa’s latest unemployment figures were a cause for concern, President Jacob Zuma said on Tuesday.
He was addressing Business Unity South Africa’s (Busa) annual general meeting in Sandton.
Zuma said the Quarterly Labour Force Survey published by Statistics SA last week indicated that some of the jobs won back in the final quarter of 2009 had been lost again in the early part of this year.
This, he said, was “cause for concern and renewed action”.
He said it was clear that some sectors of the economy were still suffering, even though the country was, overall, beginning to grow fairly well again.
“As we predicted, although the economy was turning positive, the impact of the recession might still lead to some job losses.”
Zuma said the government had developed a range of interventions, such as the Industrial Development Corporation’s (IDC) programme, to help firms avoid retrenchments.
“I urge all employers who might still face the prospects of lay-offs due to the recession to use these facilities that we have created so that they do not have to retrench workers unnecessarily,” he said.
‘Successful year for all’
Zuma said last Sunday marked the first anniversary of his administration.
“It has been a hectic, but a very fulfilling and successful year for all of us. We have been working hard to introduce new ways of doing things and to change the way government works to improve service delivery.”
Zuma said that following his attendance at the World Economic Forum in Dar es Salaam, he had returned “encouraged about Africa’s prospects”.
He had learnt at the meeting that Africa had come through the global economic crisis “much more smoothly” than ever before.
“In the past when the US or Europe sneezed, Africa caught a cold. This time we found that Africa was immunised,” he said.
Many African countries did not go into recession, although their growth rates had weakened for a while.
“Economists believe that one of the main factors immunising Africa is the sound macroeconomic policies that have been followed in many African countries for some years now,” Zuma said.
Good news for Africa
He had no doubt one of the main reasons for the better economic policies was that most African governments had become more accountable to their citizens.
“Democracy and accountability seem to go along with better economic policies. This is good news for Africa.”
Zuma congratulated Brian Molefe, outgoing Busa president, “for steering this ship forward so successfully to this point,” and he welcomed its new president Futhi Mthoba.
Zuma looked forward to an “ongoing fruitful engagement” with Busa to tackle the serious socioeconomic matters affecting South Africa. – Sapa